This week we talk about the secrets of making 5G work with MIMO and Beam-Steering, new trials announced by DoCoMo, KT and LG Plus with their respective OEM/Chipset partners, and a cooperation agreement between China and Taiwan to research and develop 5G technologies.

Weekly 5G business, technology & market updates – Nov 12-19, 2016

31 Gbps In LG UPlus Demo with Huawei Basestation

LG Uplus in cooperation with Huawei reports reaching 31Gbps using a 5G test basestation and test terminal operating in the 28 GHz frequency band, which is one of the candidate spectrum bands that South Korea could allocate to commercial 5G deployments. The equipment for the trial emphasizes the importance of a ‘Massive MIMO’ antenna configuration, and the importance of ultra high frequency (mmWave) spectrum. Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) increases the number of transmission antennas at the basestation from two or three to more than 100, delivering data to a large number of users at the same time. Massive MIMO combined with ultra broadband support makes possible to provide 5G service to large numbers of users at a high speed without any speed degradation. Therefore, making feasible Virtual Reality(VR), Augmented reality(AR), Ultra High Definition(UHD) Broadcasting and other high-speed streaming services to the masses.

LG Uplus is actively engaged in early commercialization of 5G in cooperation with global equipment manufacturers. LG Uplus claims that it needs 5G to respond to surging data traffic as well as to secure network leadership with the early introduction of next-generation mobile technologies. LG Uplus Network Technology Department’s Kang Jeong-ho said, “Ericsson has demonstrated speeds of up to 26Gbps through 5G test bases, but at this demonstration, LG Uplus introduced 5G technology-based base stations and equipment faster than previously developed base stations.” and he added that “We expect to contribute greatly to the activation of high-quality services such as 4K and 8K UHD and VR in the future.”

Korea Telecom (KT) announced in November 2015 that it was working with global partners on the definition of 5G. In June 2016, KT confirmed that it had a set of complete 5G specifications called 5G-SIG. Finally this last Tuesday, KT announced reaching a consensus with global network and chipset manufacturers Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung to commercialized 5G-SIG in 2019. This 5G standard by KT and its partners is based on the 28GHz mmWave spectrum. “We have been on an upward track to push for setting a global standard for the upcoming 5G era after we established the 5G-SIG in November last year,” Seo Chang-seok, vice president at the firm’s network strategy division, said in a press conference. “The 5G specifications will serve as a backbone for our 5G demonstration plan at the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018,” he added.

Earlier this year (April 2016), KT announced another 5G trial using the E-Band spectrum to establish mobile backhaul networks for 5G services in mountainous areas where it is difficult to lay optical fiber. Reportedly the trial, will use NEC’s ultra-compact microwave iPASOLINK EX communications system supporting ultra-multilevel modulation (256QAM) that yields a capacity of up to 3.2Gbps.

Source: Korea Times, The Telecom Times

DoCoMo, Ericsson and Intel to Trial 5G in Tokyo Starting in 2017

This week NTT DOCOMO (DoCoMo), Ericsson and Intel announced to further advance 5G development by building a 5G test network in various areas of Tokyo, starting in 2017.The primary aim is to trial use case applications and radio performance. Ericsson said that it will provide 5G end-to-end equipment including 5G radio, baseband, virtualized RAN, and core network. Intel will contribute its chipset in user device in a mobile device trial platform. The trial will be conducted using the 28GHz frequency band; one of the candidate bands that Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is considering designating for use by commercial 5G networks in Japan.
Seizo Onoe, DoCoMo’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, says: “DoCoMo and Ericsson have been working together on joint 5G projects including outdoor trials, and this is a further development of our joint efforts. Adding Intel’s expertise, we will be on track to evaluate the feasibility of services that leverage 5G technologies together with ecosystem partner companies.”

Source: Ericsson

China, Taiwan Team up for 5G

This year at the Cross-Straits Forum, China and Taiwan discussed a plan to work together to promote research and industrial cooperation on 5G, and help formulate a global standard. China finished the first phase of 5G research and testing in September. Yang Zemin, vice president and secretary general at China Communications Standards Association, said that he has an optimistic view of the opportunity for Taiwan-based firms to participate in the mainland’s second phase of experimental work on 5G. “Both the mainland and Taiwan have open minds for deep cooperation in [the] future, and the two sides can work together to help formulate global 5G standard,”

At the forum, Taiwan mobile network operators said that they have launched the VoLTE service. However, Taiwan-based firms lack a strong driving force for enhancing its development based on business model concerns. Through the cooperation, Taiwan can access China’s market and compete with foreign chipmakers, such as Qualcomm. Taiwan’s ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), the major research force behind 5G technology, has proposed six possible directions for the cooperation: mmWave, ultra dense networks, mobile edge computing, IoT (Internet of Things), IoV (Internet of Vehicles) and virtualization. As Taiwan has accumulated considerable ICT hardware and software strength and has devoted to innovative applications, Taiwan is an ideal partner for developing 5G technologies.

Source: China Daily

Real Secrets of Making 5G Work: MIMO & Beam-Steering

What technology advances and products we need to make 5G development a reality? The major drivers for 5G development are increased cellular capacity, a shortage of LTE spectrum, demand for higher data rates to support video use cases, VR/AR app support, and ultra low latency for real-time features. Other drivers include support for a massive number of IoT devices, and connectivity for the next 1 billion. Meeting the demands of these drivers involves new technologies at the different levels of a mobile system: backhaul transport links, core network, devices, basestations, etc.

As far as the wireless link of this 5G mobile system, the real secret to making it work is the use of massive MIMO and phased-array beam steering. Beam steering focuses the beam to produce boosted transmitter power and higher receiver gain and sensitivity. It also increases link reliability and minimizes interference with nearby cells. The real challenge of 5G design is implementing the MIMO and beam steering. A K-band transceiver implementing these functionalities is given a thumbs-up from Electronic Design, for sure it will be on its way to make 5G cell sites happen soon.

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is Facebook’s approach to develop new technologies and rethink global infrastructure for emerging 5G networking, for IoT and for virtual reality. The project’s first summit [Nov 1-2, 2016] reports that TIP has over 300 member organizations, and starting in 2017 it will also count with a network of global acceleration centers. On the technical side, there were two major announcements at the summit. One of them was the Voyager Platform, and the other was the availability of full OpenCellular specs. Facebook contributed to TIP with Voyager, a scalable cost-effective platform to support fiber-based backhaul transport as well as switching and routing. Voyager is based on Facebook Open Packet DWDM architecture and implements industry’s first white-box transponder with an IP/MPLS networking solution. Voyager’s design is available to the TIP community to facilitate disaggregation of the hardware and software components of the network stack. The first version of Voyager leverages the data center technologies that Facebook uses in OCP’s Wedge top-of-rack switch. Finally on the wireless access front, Facebook announced that OpenCellular designs and schematics are now fully open source within TIP. At the summit Facebook reiterated that it sees this as instrumental to accelerate the industry’s ability to provide wireless access in remote areas.

Only days after Qualcomm made its 5G chipset announcement, CEVA reports a design win with a tier one handset OEM for a 5G NR chipset solution. The CEVA product, part of X2 and it is designed for specific LTE-Advanced-Pro and 5G use cases where the emphasis is PHY control processing. During the 3Q2016 quarterly conference call, CEVA’s management confirmed this new DSP agreement saying it was with “…a tier-one handset OEM customer for is 5G New Radio (NR) platform… This together with our recent 5G basestation design win, position us and the only end-to-end DSP provider for 5G.” CEVA is a licensor of signal processing IP. Together with semiconductor companies and OEMs creates power-efficient, intelligent and connected devices for a range of end markets, including mobile, consumer, automotive, industrial and IoT. Their ultra-low-power IPs for vision, audio, communications and connectivity include comprehensive DSP-based platforms for LTE/LTE-A/5G baseband processing in handsets, infrastructure.

Source: CEVA

IETF, ETSI, 5G-PPP Report Milestones in Their 5G Work

New specifications, R&D program updates and new communication protocol proposals are the milestones that IETF, ETSI and 5G-PPP have been reporting in recent dates. IETF issued new documents in the areas of network virtualization, slicing and ID location split in 5G Networks. The new version of IRTF network virtualization describes how network virtualization is a more complex problem than generic virtualization, i.e. cloud computing; it goes on to describe current research challenges including guaranteeing QoS, performance improvement, multi-domain support, network slicing, service composition, device virtualization, privacy and security. Another important document recently released by IETF is a locator ID split in 5G networks; according to contributor Huawei, this is needed because currently the IP address indicates both the identity and location of the end host, and does not support mobility and multiple accesses naturally. The last of IETF Drafts is an architecture for real view of deployment of mobility and multicast functions in 5G core network via slicing.

ETSI’s Next Generation Protocol (NGP) group released GS NGP 001 with the key scenarios to evolve the current Internet Protocol (IP). It contains a total of 51 use cases — referencing 3GPP TR 22.891 as well as inputs from other standard bodies. The use cases address security, mobility, context-awareness, performance improvement and content enablement as well as multi-access, Internet of Things (IoT), virtualization, mobile edge computing and energy savings to shape their protocol evolution for 5G systems.

Nokia and Singapore’s StarHub demonstrate 4.3Gbps and 1 milli-econd latency 5G centimeter wave (cmWave) frequencies. Centimeter wave refers to carrier frequencies between 3-GHz and 30-GHz, which compares to millimeter wave frequencies above 30-GHz. These higher-band frequencies are being discussed as a key component of future 5G networks. The demo was supported by Nokia’s AirScale platform. This platform promises 60% lower energy consumption and a smaller physical footprint compared to previous generation radio access technologies. The 5G trial was conducted at StarHub’s headquarters as part of the operator’s ongoing trials into future technologies to facilitate emerging use cases such as virtual and augmented reality streaming and e-health applications. Starhub Head of Engineering highlights their user-oriented approach saying that they are “…exploring how we can use 5G technologies to enrich the lives of our customers.”

China Unicom’s Network Technology Research Institute is working on a future use case and calls it “panoramic virtual reality streaming of live video using drone technology.” It involves capturing video streaming from drones equipped with 360-degree HD cameras and providing it real-time to users. Users will be able to manipulate their perspective in real time for an immersive real-time VR experience. To enable this use case, China Unicom is partnering with small cells provider Baicells and with Artesyn who is providing Embedded Technologies’ MaxCore Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) acceleration platform. Reportedly, this MEC platform combined with LTE/5G transmission will provide fluent, interference-free, high-speed transmission of the video data.

Artesyn’s press release highlights that this is a prototype VR-enabled live video platform that harness MEC to achieve the low latency where “MEC provides a distributed computing environment for application and service hosting, bringing cloud technologies closer to the RAN [Radio Access Network] and ultimately, closer to consumers”.

In the las few days, IETF, ETSI and 5G PPP have provided important progress reports of their 5G activities. ETSI work to evolve today’s (IP) networking protocols towards 5G saw the first Next Generation Protocols specification completed. IETF released 3 new documents looking at network slicing, virtualization and ID location splits in 5G Networks. 5G PPP issued its 2016 annual journal with an update of the 17 programs under EU’s Horizon 2020 and views of technology and spectrum for 5G.

In IETF, There Are New Proposals for Virtualization, ID Split and Network Slicing in 5G: Telefonica, SigFox and InterDigital are the authors ofthe latest IRTF network virtualization document. The document outlines how network virtualization is a more complex problem than cloud computing, and follows with a list of current research challenges like guaranteeing QoS, performance improvement, multi-domain support, network slicing, service composition, device virtualization, privacy and security. The major outcome of the document is a proposal to IETF/IRTF to solve these challenges mapping the work to be done to potential IETF groups (see Table 1.)

Another recently released IETF document addresses the ID location split in 5G networks. According to Huawei, authoring the document, this is needed because currently the IP (Internet Protocol) address indicates both the identity and location of the end host. This addressing scheme doesn’t support mobility and multiple accesses naturally. It is also inefficient in terms of route validity (referring to route aggregation with locator), scalability, and security; an additional issue is that the communication message is transmitted by any address, and is not affected the identifier of both ends of the communication. To tackle these issues, a generic network scheme based on ID / Locator separate architecture is proposed. It satisfies the following requirements of future networks:

Ubiquitous mobility: the identifier is independent from network location;

Last, an IETF Draft proposal from Korea, describes an architecture for real view of deployment of mobility and multicast functions in 5G core network. The proposal assumes that in the 5G era, the mobile network functions and mobile services could be provided on demand using NFV and network slicing. The document outlines the architecture of delivering the mobility and multicast services over 5G core network using NFV and network slicing. The mobility and multicast are delivered to customers depending on their type of traffic that they are going to request or mobile operator’s specific use cases. The proposal borrows from distributed mobility management deployment and management and orchestration framework (MANO) of NFV.

ETSI’s Next Generation Protocol Group Released GS NGP 001: ETSI NGP ISG (Next Generation Protocol) released a document with the key scenarios to evolve the current Internet Protocol (IP). It contains a total of 51 use cases that reference 3GPP TR 22.891 as well as inputs from other standard bodies. The use cases address security, mobility, context-awareness, performance improvement and content enablement as well as multi-access, Internet of Things (IoT), virtualization, mobile edge computing and energy savings requirements related to protocol evolution for 5G systems. The document also compares and contrasts existing IP suite protocols with next generation networking protocol architecture proposals.

When announcing the availability of the new specification, Andy Sutton, Chairman of NGP ISG said that “Current and future use cases include 4K videos on various devices, massive IoT, drone control or virtual reality…. A modernized network protocols architecture had to be triggered and this is why NGP ISG was created.”

The European 5G PPP Journal 2016 Issue: 5G PPP released this week their annual 5G Journal with a progress update of the 17 R&D projects funded under EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The journal also reviews the four “industry vertical” use cases of 5G: automotive, energy, factories and e-Health, and also addresses technical developments in radio access network design, NFV network slicing, system architecture, security, energy efficiency.

Facebook’s Telecom Infra Project (TIP) had its first summit in California, and the results are impressive: The introduction of Voyager, the availability of full OpenCellular specs. the addition of new members, and the establishment of TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centers around the world. With this, Facebook efforts to transform the telecommunications industry with an OCP data center like approach continue at brisk pace.

What is Facebook’s Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Who Are the Members?: Facebook announced TIP in February 2016 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. TIP is the way for leading technology providers to develop new technologies and rethink approaches to deploying global network infrastructure to support emerging 5G networking, IoT and virtual reality use cases. It has over 300 members including the latest additions Bell Canada, du (EITC), Accenture, Amdocs, Canonical, HPE, Giles, NBN, Orange, Telia, Telstra, and Toyota.

Voyager is an open approach for switching, routing, and transport: Meeting the needs of a global network infrastructure requires both wireless connectivity and scalable, cost-effective backhaul transport. Facebook believes that fiber-based technologies — particularly switching, routing, and transport DWDM technologies are the best choice. Facebook’s engineering team has been working on a new approach to these challenges called Open Packet DWDM. Open Packet DWDM uses combined packet and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology for metro and long-haul fiber optic transport networks. Facebook will contribute Open Packet DWDM to the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) as well as the new new transponder platform called Voyager which is based on the Open Packet DWDM transport architecture and implements industry’s first white-box transponder with an IP/MPLS routing solution. Voyager’s design will be available to the TIP community to enable disaggregating the hardware and software components of the network stack. Finally Facebook said that Voyager has already being successfully tested with TIP members Equinix and MTN.

“ we believe that a key to efficiency is enabling open and unbundled solutions,”

Jay Parikh, Facebook (Image & Quote Source: Facebook Blog)

The first version of Voyager is shown above leverages data center technologies used in the Wedge top-of-rack switch including the same switch ASIC as Wedge 100 for aggregating the 100 GbE (Broadcom Tomahawk). In addition, Voyager incorporates a DSP ASIC and optics module (AC400) from Acacia Communications for the DWDM line side. Lumentum developed a terminal amplifier specification so that multiple applications can run on top of the open software layer to enable software innovations in DWDM system control algorithms and network management systems. Voyager’s optical capabilities are suited from metro to ultra-long-haul transport. Facebook worked with Celestica on the supply chain and with Snaproute on the software architecture for the end-to-end solution. Voyager makes use of hardware/platform management daemons to implement the network element software stack. These daemons enable configuration, management, and monitoring of the hardware and provide services to higher-layer software to provision the hardware. The middle layer of the software stack has protocol and infrastructure daemons that implement core switching and routing. Above the protocol/infrastructure layer resides the management layer to configure of various services and to monitoring the health of the system with events, faults, and alarms.

OpenCellular designs and schematics are now fully open source within TIP: Facebook sees this as instrumental to accelerate the industry’s ability to provide wireless access in remote areas of the world. Facebook Karthic says: “We’re excited to see how this knowledge transfer will empower our partners to develop solutions that meet the unique needs of remote communities.”

TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centers: Facebook and TIP members “believe that innovation can and should come from everywhere, beyond the current sources. We need to find ways to attract the brightest entrepreneurial minds and innovative investors to work together as part of the wider TIP community to produce breakthrough technologies and products in telecom infrastructure space.” To achieve this goal, they envision opening a network of centers around the world to incubate local talent and accelerate product development. The fist one will open in Seul early Q1 2017 sponsored by Facebook and SK Telecom.

New People and Process Project Group within TIP: This new group is formed to develop and share cultural and process transformation best practices that can improve operators’ key metrics. The group co-chairs are Bell Canada and Facebook. And the members of this group are Accenture, Agilitrix, Bell Canada, Deloitte, HPE, NBN, SK Telecom, Tata, Telefonica, and Telstra.

We are at the early stage of 5G technology development. Comparing it with previous mobile generations, the difference is the involvement of many industries . This time, the marketplace is showing that together with the timing of 5G, industry verticals outside Telecommunications want to use connectivity, 5G, in their products and processes. Whether it be manufacturing, finance, energy, health, transport or mining, industries are looking to incorporate connectivity.

From Smartphones to Robots, Avatars, Bikes, Drones and Autonomous Cars: Industry verticals see connectivity, 5G, as a driver of innovation, efficiencies and as a digital disruption catalyst. What impact this aim at connectivity will have in the mobile industry? In addition to today’s people-centric, smartphone-based mobile connectivity, there is an expectation that connectivity requirements from these disparate verticals will bring about a wide range of new devices, services and apps. Rather than speculating or driving hype about what is possible, let’s walk over solutions that are already coming to the market and about their evolution. These solutions are largely meant to be deployed in 4G networks, and with enhancements evolve into 5G. Also in this article instead of looking at many verticals, we focus the discussion in transportation, which has been up to now one of the most active verticals in this connectivity area. A testament to the automotive industry interest in connectivity was CTIA SuperMobility. The show is not primarily an automotive or transportation-oriented tech show, but this year there were many announcements related to transportation automation from the likes of wireless carriers, car manufacturers, and technology components makers such as IoT modules, panelists, and displays. Most of the connectivity solutions in here were either shown or announced during the show.

Self-Driving Connected Cars and Bikes: Among those introducing products recently are Aeris, AT&T, Diversiti, Glimpse, Harman, KORE, Qualcomm, Streetline, Telit, W-blox, and ZTE. AT&T announced at SuperMobility that it will be the exclusive wireless carrier for LeEco Super Bike. With this announcement, LeEco continues their expansion into the US market aligned with their move earlier this year to acquire smart TV maker Vizio. The bike comes with a waterproof smart device with built-in 4-inch display, with Android, and with connectivity cellular networks. Features includes a smart riding system, laser lane markers, fingerprint identification, a smart lock, intercom feature, and a power management system. It is a sensor-rich device including an alarm triggered by movement, location tracker, fingerprint scanner, electronic parking brakes, heart rate monitor, accelerometer, gyroscope, temperature, humidity and compass. Global and seamless connectivity to this impressive list of sensors will enable the 5G apps and services that are still on the drawing board.

Automotive Connectivity via IoT Modules: In automotive IoT modules, we highlight a LTE Cat 4 smart module from Telit. The module is par of what Telit calls its portfolio of automotive-grade cellular IoT modules. The 150 Mbps capable product addresses automakers’ growing demand for high-speed mobile data connectivity to support applications like advanced diagnostics and infotainment, remote software updates; and complies with eCall and ERA GLONASS which are emerging, mandated European and Russian emergency call systems. The new module will also be available in variants compliant with regulatory and mobile carrier-requirements in North American, European and Chinese markets. With built-in application processor, storage and memory, the IoT module, named LE920A4, includes the deviceWISE agent with access to a web portal for simple, secure and scalable automotive device and customer on-boarding.

An Android Bike, New Kind of Network Device (Image Source: LeEco.com)

Managing the Logistics of a Transportation Feet: In the fleet management space, KORE and Vis Tracks have a cloud-based app for electronic driver logs (ELD), hours of service, and vehicle inspections. In the announcement, KORE detailed that partnership between its division Position Logic — focused in on-demand, branded, precision location-based solutions for business-to-business applications — and VisTracks, a developer of tablet and cloud-based application for electronic driver logs (ELD), hours of service, and vehicle inspections.

The “Uberization” of Parking: Vehicle parking solutions were also in the spotlight, and many solutions from IoT companies are under trial or in the initial stages of deployment. We highlight ZTE that in addition to its well established smartphones and telematic devices, it has been demonstrating ZTE’s Smart City and Smart Parking solutions.

This week’s 5G happenings include a standards update from ETSI/3GPP, a report from Huawei confirming that polar codes meet 5G air interface requirements, a 5G live-test by Telia and Ericsson hitting 3 milliseconds latency & 15 Gbps peak speed per user, a look at Google connectivity strategy scaling back fiber and uping mobile plans, and NFV with OpenStack head to become 5G building blocks.

Weekly business, technology & market updates – Oct 28, 2016

State-of-The-Art 5G Standards from ETSI/3GPP

Out of the Broadband World Forum 2016, we highlight the update from ETSI CTO Adrian Scrase about taking “5G from Myth to Reality: The why, when where and how of 5G standards” with these key remarks: (1) Existing technologies are capable of satisfying todays requirements but not those of Tomorrow (IoT, automotive, public safety,…); (2) Three use case families in 5G: enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine type communications and ultra reliable, low latency communications; (3) 3GPP will specify a new radio interface (NR), an evolved LTE radio interface, a new core network (NextGen), and an evolved LTE core network (EPC.)

Regarding the hotly debated 5G timeline, Adrian Scrase’s update says that the headline date for 5G is 2020, and ultimately this is for the market to drive.

The need to accelerate the development of new networking services, including those planned for 5G, explains why virtualization efforts such as NFV and OpenStack are considered highly strategic. This week’s OpenStack Summit and the recent release by ETSI of its OSM stack to open source stressed the urgency to adopt these technologies and tools in the telco space. On the market side, the Open Stack Summit in Barcelona showed that the NFV-OpenStack combo continues to gain traction with industry stakeholders. At the event, the main theme was telco and NFV demos were featured prominently pointing to NFV as perhaps the best use-case for OpenStack. During the summit it was announced that mobile operator China Mobile had won the OpednStack SuperUser Award.

On the standards side, ETSI released its open source management and orchestration (OSM) stack to open source with the goal to enable the rapid adoption of its NFV scalable and interoperable open source management and organization (MANO) framework. The stack includes native support for OpenStack. In addition, it has native support for VMware and OpenVIM as well as built-in support for SDN controllers such as OpenDayLight and FloodLight.

There are several candidate technologies to the new 5G air interface that aim at meeting ITU IMT-2020 5G requirements. These technologies are massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), SCMA (Sparse Code Multiple Access), polar codes, full/half duplex, filtered OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), and such. In recent days, a report from Huawei Technologies confirms they have developed and tested one of them, polar codes as part of the 5G technology tests in China with results confirming that it meets the performance criteria of 5G along these three dimensions: (1) Ultra broad- band speeds of up to 20Gbps; (2)Low latency performance of below 1 millisecond; and (3) Billions of connections as described by ITU.

The tests used mmWave (millimeter wave) spectrum bands, and the company says about the results that “Firstly, Polar Code provides an efficient channel coding technology for 5G allowing significantly higher spectrum efficiency than today cellular accesses. Secondly, Polar Code has the practical decoding ability of linear complexity in order to minimise the implementation cost of coming 5G equipment,” concluding that “Polar Code is the most competitive candidate of channel coding solution for coming 5G.”

Network Equipment OEM Ericsson is reporting results in speed and latency benchmarks as part of the 5G trials that it is conducting together with Telia in a live network. Reportedly the equipment was configured to use the 15 GHz band and to use 800 MHz of bandwidth. In this configuration, a test peak speed of 15 Gbps per user with a latency of 3 milliseconds were reported. It was also noted that the speed is 40 times faster than current maximum speeds available on 4G.

“Higher speed and lower latency brought by 5G enhance existing services and open up for completely new use cases, service scenarios and innovations, creating new eco-systems and business opportunities, including communication and Internet of Things (IoT) services for both consumers and for the digitalization of industries” says Ericsson.

Google Fiber emerged in 2009 timeframe as one of Google’s experimental projects. In 2012, Google announced it was a viable business model. From there, Google has been investing millions of dollars to offer FTTH including cable television and mobile internet in big American cities. Just a few days ago, a reports in Google’s Fiber blog communicated that it was scaling down efforts. It appears that fiber was more time-consuming, more expensive to install than anticipated, and the company is rethinking the strategy in regards to this technology.

At the same time ,it was taking these actions regarding their fiber business, it was filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to test a prototype mobile device nationwide using the 2.4-5.8 GHz band signaling that a more mobile-leaning strategy is in the works. This adds to Google’s previous August 2016 filings with FCC to test wireless broadband at 24 cities in USA in the 3.5 GHz band. Both moves underscore that mobile could be gaining momentum within Alphabet as part of their future broadband strategy.

September 2016 Reader’s Pool Results Are Out: We regularly pool our readers on subjects are relevant to 5G technologies, and ask them how they impact their work, life, and what trends they see. For the month of September 2016, we are sharing what they told us about the 5G timeline, specifically when 5G will be available and the majority say that it is 2020.

Technology Showcase Could Start as Early as 2018: Many industry players are planning to start running trials and delivering to users 5G-like experiences by 2018. Most notorious has been the announcements related to services and applications that will be available by the 2018 Olympics.

3GPP, ITU Standards Timeline Reflected in IMT-2020 and 3GPP Release 15: As far as 5G standards, the major organizations that are currently working to define this next mobile system generations are ITU and 3GPP. Both have delivered their work schedule towards the completion of the standard by 2020.

China’s aim to be at the forefront of 5G moves closer to commercial reality with the recent news that the country’s phase 1 tests were completed and trials are underway. Last month, China’s MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) declared complete the first phase of government testing on key wireless technologies for future 5G networks with seven companies were invited to participate – Datang Telecom, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia Shanghai Bell, Samsung and ZTE. On separate news, this month we learned that 5G testing will take place across 100 cities in 20 different provinces in the country. And for the future, China’s MIIT says it expects to launch commercial operation of 5G in 2020, and follow with large-scale deployments in 2022 or 2023.

Completion of 5G phase one testing and announcing aggressive schedules of field trials signals China is moved closer to commercial 5G. It also signals that its big bet for Shenzhen, for economies of scale, and for a global standard to shape the next generation mobile technologies and markets at a worldwide level is, so far, working as planned.

China Looks at 5G in Made in China 2025 and Five-Year Plans: China has been part of the global 5G research and development activities since they kicked off around the 2013. In the same year 2013, the Chinese government established IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, to speed up 5G and help conduct the worldwide biggest experiment of 5G technology research and development. But prior to these development, there was seminal work in the Made in China 2025 and the Five-Year Plan reports

The Made in China 2025 report set the stage talking about enhancing the innovation capability of the manufacturing industry via different plans. Then, the 13th Five-Year Plan clearly sets out that the development of new strategic industries will be vigorously promoted via industrial policy guidelines and the national strategic industries development fund, the role of emerging industries in supporting the development of the manufacturing industry; and one of the key development objectives is the “new-generation information technology industry innovation” and a major action for this objective is “develop artificial intelligence, smart hardware, new displays, mobile-smart terminals, 5G mobile communications, advanced sensors, wearable devices, etc.”

As far as 5G, it means developing high-speed communications systems that can theoretically transmit data orders or magnitude faster than current 4G systems with less than one-tenth of the latency, or the time for a data request to receive a reply. 5G networks can achieve theoretical speeds around 20 Gbps.

MIIT Plots the Path to 5G: China’s 5G technology development is one of the world’s largest 5G effort planned by a government. It is led by MIIT and implemented by the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group and CATR (China Academy of Telecommunication Research) as responsible party to manage the main operators, equipment manufacturers, chip instrument enterprises and scientific research institutions at home and abroad in the 5G test . The test is a two-step process. The first step is technology R&D test in 2016 – 2018, and the second is product R&D test in 2018 – 2020. The first step is divided into three phases, namely key technology verification, technical solution verification and system verification. Detail phases, timelines and milestones are in the figure below.

5G Testing, Phase I Completes Satisfactory: At 5G Innovation Development Forum on September 22, Wei Kejun, 5G Test Leader and Deputy Head of Wireless Technology Group of IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, made the announcement that the first phase of China 5G technology R&D test had ended on September 15 with results as desired. From now on, efforts move to the next phase of “technology scheme trials” as outlined in the figure below.

5G Trials Panned in 100 Cities, Other Trials to Follow: Following reports of the conclusion by MIIT of the first phase of government testing on key wireless technologies for future 5G networks last month, it was announced that China will roll out 5G mobile equipment trials across 100 cities, as it aims to get a head start in the race to lead the next generation of cellular phone systems. A spokesman for Shenzhen-based telecommunications equipment maker ZTE (participating OEM in the trial), told the South China Morning Post that China Mobile alone was planning “pre-5G trials in more than 100 cities across more than 20 provinces.” China Unicom and China Telecom may also be undertaking some preparation.

China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless network operator by revenue and subscribers, has said previously that it plans to roll out its 5G network service in 2020. Analyst firm Bernstein forecasts that China Mobile will reach 543 million 4G users by the end of this year, up from 466.64 million as of August 31, 2016. Almost 30 per cent of China’s 1.3 billion mobile phone users are on 4G networks, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which regulates the sector.

Introduction to 5G Trials in China Under Supervision of Government’s MIIC Agency

China to Start Deploying 5G in 2010 Following with Lage-Scale Commercial Deployments of in 2022-2023 (9/30): According the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China expects to launch commercial operation of 5G in 2020, and follow with large-scale ones in 2022 or 2023. China has attached great importance to 5G in the 13th national Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and has set the goal of 5G commercialization by 2020. As the increasing need for low delay and high reliability, 4G faces big challenges thus 5G is needed.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices will surpass mobile phones as the largest category of connected devices in 2018 according to Ericsson 2016 Mobility Report. IoT will grow at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% in the 2015-2021 period, reaching the 16 billion mark at the end of that period when the total connected devices forecast is 28 billion.

Mobile Connected Devices Go Beyond Phones: Mobile phones are believed to be the gateways to a successful business as they are estimated to be the largest category of connected devices. In fact, suggests that subscriptions associated with smartphones continue to increase and during Q3 2016, the number of smartphone subscriptions will surpass those for basic phones. In Q1 2016, smartphones accounted for close to 80% of all mobile phones sold.

But by 2018, they are expected to be surpassed by IoT, which according to the report, includes connected cars, machines, utility meters, remote metering and consumer electronics. Between 2015 and 2021, IoT devices are expected to increase at a CAGR of 23%, driven by new use cases. Out of 28 billion connected devices forecasted by 2021, 16 billion will be related to IoT.

Out of the total number of IoT devices, the report predicts that 1.5 billion will have a cellular subscription by 2021. For comparison, at the end of 2015, there were ‘only’ ~400 million IoT devices with cellular subscriptions.

The region to add the most connections is expected to be Western Europe, where the growth will be led by the connected car segment. According to estimations, the number of IoT devices in Western Europe is expected to quadruple between 2015 and 2021. However, in absolute numbers, the APAC region is the world’s leader in terms of total IoT connected devices.

Massive and Critical Apps are key Emerging IoT Segments: Within IoT, the two major market segments with different requirements are reported to be emerging: massive and critical applications.

Among the examples are smart buildings, transport logistics, fleet management, smart meters and agriculture. While today ~70% of cellular modules are GSM-only, over time many things will be connected through capillary networks. The implementation of network mechanisms will result in extended network coverage for low-rate applications.

According to the report, additional functionality will allow existing networks to support different device categories, and enable prioritization of devices accessing the network. Network system improvements (such as sleep mode) will support battery lifetimes beyond 10 years for remote cellular devices.

“Critical IoT connections are characterized by requirements for ultra-reliability and availability, with very low latency.”

Among the examples are traffic safety, autonomous cars, industrial applications, remote manufacturing and healthcare, including remote surgery. Even in 2016, the LTE’s share of cellular IoT device penetration is only ~5%. However, cost reductions will make LTE-connected devices increasingly viable, enabling new, very low latency applications. However, the boost of the LTE’s share of cellular IoT device penetration will require reduced complexity and limited modems to IoT application capabilities.

Evolved functionality in existing LTE networks and new 5G capabilities will extend the range of addressable applications for critical IoT deployments.

The major 5G developments of the month come via Far EasTone’s 5G services demo supported over 4G networks evolving to 5G, via iconic device launches from Apple and Samsung whose new features predict an evolution to 5G, and also via news from CTIA 2016 SuperMobility introducing 5G products and solutions as evolution from exiting solutions, just faster, better performing, cheaper and/or more optimized.

The common theme in these developments is that they position 5G as “evolution” of 4G. However, in previous months we saw developments that position 5G as a “revolutionary” approach such as Facebook’s TIP, Spectrum Sharing from DARPA, and Cloud, Open Source Telco.

For now, both approaches are present in the marketplace. At the end, will 5G be an evolution or a revolution?

In the continuous stream of news about 5G testbeds, pre-commercial demos, and lab trials, the one that Far EasTone and Ericsson conducted stands out. They demonstrated 5G services over the 4G network, reporting a 1 Gbps throughput. What makes this demo unique is the vision of 5G as an evolution path from LTE. Technology wise, the evolution involves adding features like MIMO, beamforming and carrier aggregation incrementally. On the spectrum side, the operator says that the will start the evolution path in the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands; because 5G spectrum has not been allocated yet in Taiwan, they expect alignment with the most commonly used bands for 5G internationally 3.6 GHz, 5.8 GHz and 28 GHz bands.

On the device side, this was a remarkable month for smartphones. Apple and Samsung, the largest cellular phone makers worldwide with 15.9% and 22.5% of the 2015 global share respectably – launched new devices. For Apple, we look at the new features of the iPhone 7 to predict the evolution to 5G of the smartphones. The most important trends are no wires, more computing power and VR, AR capabilities.

In the US, the mobile ecosystem gathered for the annual CTIA SuperMobility show, and 5G was everywhere. The FCC, transportation and automotive industries, and major telecom OEMs made announcements related to 5G with an evolutionary flavor along the lines of additional bands of spectrum, additional IoT network devices, improved enterprise solutions, and evolution of existing RAN, Core and Service architectures.

The 5G Magazine is the #1 read for technologists, investors, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, event organizers, corporate executives, academics, engineers and researchers, government officials, international organizations, PR/press and mobile enthusiasts. It is an independent monthly publication, and this is a pre-rollout, market trial issue of the periodical.

As for the 5G Magazine, we make it from this month more accessible with a www.5g-magazine.com site, and social media presence in major networks. These are the ones starting up this month:

The publication is edited, designed, produced, and distributed by a team of word class experts. For more information or inquiries please visit ElenaNeira.com or send email to contact@elenaneira.com.

Did you Know? 43% of our readers say that Cloud, Distributed Computing are top skills for 5G. This came in as part of our August 2016 readers pool results. We posted the full details of the pool in the magazine’s website under this link.

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The stream of news about 5G testbeds, and pre-commercial 5G lab trials, demos, and live-tests continues. This time is Taiwan’s Far EasTone that, partnering with Ericsson, is announcing demos of 5G services over its 4G LTE network, and reporting a 1 Gbps throughput. What is different about this case from others we previously reported is that Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), Taiwan’s No. 3 telecom operator, is highlighting together with the 5G demo results their evolution path from LTE. With this evolutionary approach, the operator expects to start offering 5G services using its long-term-evolution (LTE) network technology in 2018, ahead of full commercial 5G operations in 2020. The company also hopes to offer some 5G pre-commercial services for its subscribers during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea.

Far EasTone Roadmap Includes a 5G Lab Demo and Steps from 4G to Commercial 5G Service: The operator announced the establishment of Taiwan’s first 5G laboratory developed in collaboration with telecom equipment supplier Ericsson. Their telecommunications network and technology business group executive vice president Rao Zhonghua said that the company aims to operate 5G services by 2018, and provide 1Gbps transmission speed network by 2020. Far EasTone launched the demonstration at its 5G lab in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) reporting to achieve 1 gigabit per second aggregate speed on their existing 4G network.

Far EasTone is the ninth partner of Ericsson’s global 5G partners to launch the demo. We are assuming that for the demo, the latest Ericsson’s testbed presented at this year’s GSMA’s Mobile World Congress 2016 is used including some of the radios with advanced features such as multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) and beamforming. Far EasTone is testing these advanced features in their own network environment with a 4G to 5G evolution plan in mind.

Commercial 5G Plans in Taiwan Take an Evolutionary, Incremental Approach from 4G to 5G : As the 5G spectrum has not been allocated in Taiwan, Far EasTone’s Rao Zhonghua said that an incremental spectrum bands and features roll out is planned as follows: an initial service phase running in the 2600 MHz and 1800 MHz bands with 20 MHz carriers reaching up to 450Mbps transmission service speeds; then by 2018 through multi-input multi-output (MIMO) base station and three carrier aggregation (3CA) integration, the transmission speed will reach 750Mbps; and finally in 2020 provide 1Gbps transmission speed of 5G services. With this incremental approach, Rao Zhounghua said “We hope to bring some new [5G] technologies or services to our customers as soon as possible. They do not have to wait until 2020,” and he also pointed out that the internationally 3.6 GHz, 5.8 GHz and 28 GHz bands will be the most commonly identified for 5G spectrum, and Taiwan foresees aligning in this direction. Overall, Taiwan has aggressive plans for 5G rollout once spectrum is assigned, and aims for 5G adoption rates faster than 4G which took only 3 years to reach 50% penetration rate.

The Path to Commercial 5G Services: Initially the company targets development of an audio-visual content platform; it will focus on serving transportation and water and electricity industries, through innovative technology research and development; and it will market 5G applications to R&D institutions, to the public sector and to private enterprises.

According to Ericsson’s latest research report, “5G can play a key role in transforming industries, including automotive, utilities, public safety, high-tech manufacturing, digital networking, healthcare, finance, media and gaming.” and services such as the ones Far EasTone is trailing are the starting point of innovating and engineering such a transformation. The 5G era will also build the “Internet of Things” throughout the globe.

August 2016 Reader’s Pool Results Are Out: We regularly pool our readers on subjects are relevant to 5G technologies, and ask them how they impact their work, life, and what trends they see. For the month of August 2016, we are sharing what they told us about key skills for the future, and about their favorite social network. Curious about last month’s (July 2016) pool results? Find them in this link

We need Cloud, Cloud Skills for 5G: 43% of our readers identify cloud and distributed computing as the most important skill for 5G. Up to 4G, procuring, engineering and managing infra was a hardware-centric endeavor, involving specfing, purchasing, and installing physical equipment such as servers. With the advent of virtualization, i.e. distributed computing and cloud, a “control plane” for managing these process in software is the new norm, and the skills to lead this cloud transformation are the highest priority for our readers. Other priorities they highlight is mobile development and big data IoT skills.

Innovation at scale comes from collaboration, communication and formulation across the enterprise. Innovation at scale is also an effortless don;t make me think, don;t make me wait, but make me care endeavor. These and other great insights at the September 8, 2016 Vodafone America Enterprise Innovation NYC Forum addressing the issue at large that “businesses live in the era of innovation. Whether it is through improving a retail experience, delivering more efficient health care, or providing new ways for employees to work anytime, anywhere. As a result businesses are challenged to embrace the innovation process more than ever before. No small fete, especially when the benefits of most innovations are only realized when they can be brought to scale.”

Scaling Innovation from Ideation to Realization: A thought-provoking panel at Vodafone’s New York office this September 8, 2016 addressed how to make innovation happen at a scale and the must-haves to make it feasible. In innovation, going from ideation to realization isn’t easy. This event aimed at exploring how organizations and enterprises stay agile, competitive, and sustainable in the ever-changing world of mobile, digital and connectivity, where enterprises from retailers to carmakers need to leverage innovation for continuous improvement and to to stay ahead with anytime/anywhere connectivity services, new apps and next-generation collaborative communications as we move to 5G.

360, Effortless Innovation: The panel shared with the audience some of recipes that they have seen working at their current and previous roles:

360-Innovation is a must: A culture of collaboration, communication and formulation across the enterprise as enabler

Effortless-Innovation: don;t make me think; don;t make me wait; but Make me care is a competitive advantage

It was a great deal of discussion about how leaders need to understand and communicate how for example continuous improvement strategies, sustained over a long period of time, affect performance metrics and business development strategies. Leaders also need to reward these innovation strategies articulating, and in doing so recognizing innovation’s contribution to the success of the organization.

Really inspiring where the examples from Salesforce’s Laura Lindsey. She described how their customer-driven culture of innovation uses customer feedback for improvement, and how this happens in rapid and natural ways, and how results showing up almost immediately.

It was a great event. Wondering what Vodafone America has in mind for next week…

@elenaneira

Vodafone Group Plc operates as a telecommunications company worldwide. The company offers voice, messaging, and data services across mobile and fixed networks; broadband and TV services; cloud and hosting, as well as Internet protocol-virtual private network services; roaming services; and unified communications services. It also provides M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer and payment service; and Vodafone One, an ultra-high-speed fixed broadband service with Ono Fibre, home landline, 4G mobile telephony, and Vodafone TV. In addition, Vodafone Group Plc offers Internet of Things (IoT), which is communication between devices via mobile technologies; international voice transit and roaming; carrier services, such as fixed and mobile connectivity and other services; and smartphones and tablets. The company serves 462 million mobile, 13 million fixed broadband, and 9.5 million TV customers. It sells its products primarily through branded stores, distribution partners, and third party retailers. Vodafone Group Plc was founded in 1984 and is based in Newbury, the United Kingdom.

Vodafone Americas, host of this innovation event, is Vodafone’s specialist division for multinational corporate customers, has operated in the region since 2006 with more than 500 employees, operating across all business functions from six locations. The event “Ideation to Realization: How do We Scale Up?” highlighted that “businesses live in the era of innovation. whether it is through improving a retail experience, delivering more efficient health care, or providing new ways for employees to work anytime, anywhere. As a result businesses are challenged to embrace the innovation process more than ever before. No small fete, especially when the benefits of most innovations are only realized when they can be brought to scale.”

Vodafone is at the forefront of 5G innovation for consumers and enterprise. They recently reported that “Working with Huawei we have recently completed a 5G field test in Newbury that demonstrates the capabilities of a trial system operating at 70 GHz. In our tests we have been able to reach data rates of over 20 Gigabits per second (Gbps) and support multiple users that receive 10 Gbps each.” More details here

At this week’s CTIA 2016 Super Mobility show, the industry presented a “beyond smartphones” picture with cars, robots, drones, and IoT being incorporated to the mobile ecosystem. Enabling mobility, connectivity and competition for all is a major care-about for FCC’s Chairman Tom Wheeler. He uncover his recipes enabling all this 5G innovation, among others he said that supporting the antenna deployments envisioned for 5G might require to share infrastructure and spectrum. He also outlined a new experimental licensing system to foster 5G innovation among researchers, universities, OEMs and other innovators.

Wheeler’s three key recipes to unlock the 5G Opportunity: The FCC Chairman outlined “three keys for what the Commission can do to help unlock the 5G opportunity:

Ensuring ample availability of spectrum to a range of competitors;

Taking all steps to foster competitive provision of infrastructure; and

Removing unnecessary hurdles to siting.

In all these areas, the FCC has activities underway. Yet, let’s be realistic, there is more to be done if 5G is to realize its promise,”

In the area of infrastructure sharing, the FCC Chairman said “I’m not endorsing shared infrastructure in every and all circumstances, and certainly not opening a door to consolidation… But I am saying that if we’re talking about thousands of antennas in a city, and you’ve got four carriers, and we are serious about leading the world in 5G deployment in our very large and spread-out country, we ought to explore creative options on how best to build that infrastructure.”

Wheeler announced a soon be launching new electronic filing system to accept applications for program experimental licenses to facilitate technology testing, integration and innovation. “Experimental licensing has led to countless wireless innovations through the generations of wireless technologies,” Wheeler said. “The new program licenses will provide much greater flexibility for researchers, universities, OEMs, and other innovators to conduct experiments and field tests of 5G technologies at scale.”

Standing in front of this group at this point in time, it’s hard not to think back to when I first stood on this stage in 1992.

A look back to my first days at CTIA gives useful perspective.

Shortly after I arrived, we celebrated reaching a momentous milestone: 10 million subscribers.

I did an event in Louisiana with the symbolic 10 millionth subscriber. By some amazing coincidence, she lived in the Congressional district of the Chairman of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee. She was a large animal veterinarian, and she told me the story of how she had been in the field tending to an injured animal only to have her phone ring with a call from a farmer who had a heifer in labor with a breached calf.

Think about that. A relatively short time ago, this was everybody’s idea of a whiz-bang dog-and-pony show.

Now look around us.

We’ve gone from celebrating 10 million mobile subscribers to having more people around the world connected to the mobile network than to the electric grid. More people globally with mobile phones than toothbrushes.

Back then, being able to call a specialist outside the office was a killer app for healthcare. Today, sensors can monitor our vitals in real-time and notify a doctor in case something’s wrong.

This is what living history looks like. This industry has connected hundreds of millions of Americans, transforming our economy and how we live.

But you’ve done something even more significant – even more profound. Thanks to the people in this room and those who came before you, for the first time in history, the relationship between networks and those who use them has changed.

Until mobile communications, the network was in control, commanding the user to come to the network. You could only enjoy the network on its terms, which shaped the patterns of economic activity.

Over the past 30-plus years, you’ve gradually created a new network paradigm where network-usage is no long network-dictated. Instead of the user having to come to the network, the network has come to the user. And that user now has an ever-more powerful smartphone computer in her hand, giving her the power to consume, and perhaps more important, create information like never before. This new paradigm has already unleashed significant new productivity; transformed the role of the media; and put us on the path to the most important network-driven transformation of society in human history.

When I stood on this stage years ago, I was constantly saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Well, pardon me for being repetitive, because here comes 5G.

5G is like the missing piece of the puzzle depicting the wireless future: Where today’s wired and wireless networks force customers to choose EITHER high speed and capacity OR mobility, 5G’s promise of gigabit mobile connections at any location will open up hugely disruptive new value propositions for the users of networks.

Think about it. In the 21st century, we have already built the most powerful engine of innovation the world has ever known. The investment of hundreds of billions to deploy almost ubiquitous wired and wireless networks enables creativity to come from anyone, anywhere, anytime. Virtually unlimited fiber capacity to millions of fixed locations removes bandwidth as a constraint on innovation in many labs and businesses. Thanks to the Internet’s open design, which is protected by FCC rules, U.S. entrepreneurs can offer their ideas on this platform without having to ask anyone’s permission. We’ve seen the deployment of massive storage and computing capacity in the cloud, the accumulation of trillions and trillions of bytes of digital information about pretty much all areas of economic activity, and the sale of a billion smartphones each with greater computing capacity than the most powerful computers of just a few years ago.

What’s still missing? What is the biggest remaining constraint on that “Vision of the Wireless Future” we used to talk about? Ultra-high-speed, high-capacity, low-latency, secure mobile connectivity. That’s what 5G delivers. As this industry proved when it removed the network limitation of having to be in a fixed place, removing network limitations opens up exciting uses. And now the limitations of speed, capacity and latency are about to become history.

So, the question becomes, “What do we need to do seize the 5G opportunity?”

The answer, of course, starts with competition. With four nationwide carriers, the U.S. wireless industry continues to invest in faster, better networks with $33 billion invested last year and nearly $100 billion invested over the past 3 years. That’s over and above the investment of billions in spectrum acquisition. New services and applications are constantly being introduced and consumer demand seems insatiable. Wireless data use more than doubled from 2014 to 2015, and continued growth is projected for the foreseeable future.

Our focus must be on continuing to promote a competitive marketplace. History suggests that major technological changes such as the 5G transition bring disruption to industry structures, with new entrants capitalizing on previously unavailable value propositions. But continued vigilance is required to ensure that there is no diminution in competition as result of technological or marketplace developments.

History has also shown that a light-touch regulatory approach, as embodied in Section 332 of the Communications Act, is conducive to innovation and investment. We should forbear from rules like rate regulation that don’t make sense for the kind of services offered, while preserving the right to throw the flag if needed to protect consumers and competition. This approach has worked for over 20 years for your industry and is the model for our new Open Internet rules.

Let’s move from the more high-level to more 5G-specific strategies.

There are three keys for what the Commission can do to help unlock the 5G opportunity: 1) ensuring ample availability of spectrum to a range of competitors; 2) taking all steps to foster competitive provision of infrastructure; and 3) removing unnecessary hurdles to siting. In all these areas, the FCC has activities underway. Yet, let’s be realistic, there is more to be done if 5G is to realize its promise.

On spectrum, the FCC has opened the door to the spectrum trifecta. We’ve targeted low-band, mid-band, and high-band airwaves that make available unprecedented amounts of spectrum.

After years of work, we are finally in the midst of the historic incentive auction to make available greenfield low-band spectrum. For as long as I can recall, this industry has had a constant refrain that government should make available more spectrum. The Congress responded, and the FCC implemented a plan to do just that. We created a market that made available 126 MHz of prime beachfront spectrum in the 600MHz band. As you know, however, that market closed when the cost to clear that amount of broadcast spectrum exceeded the bid prices of the carriers. We resume bidding next week a new reverse auction to determine the cost to clear a reduced amount – 114 MHz – of spectrum. Following that, we’ll again turn to the forward auction to determine if the spectrum is worth that cost to you.

The Incentive Auction, however, is just a part of the spectrum trifecta. The Commission’s record-setting AWS-3 auction and creation of the new Citizens Broadband Radio service in the 3.5 GHz band are landmarks in using new sharing tools to open up more mid-band spectrum. It is interesting that this is apparently where Europe sees its 5G developing.

And, of course, this summer, the FCC approved an order making the U.S. the first country in the world to open up high-band spectrum for 5G networks and applications. And in order to give this industry the opportunity to lead the world in 5G, we did it in record time—only nine months from proposal to final decision.

In all three of these allocations, the Commission sticks to a proven formula: Lead the world in spectrum availability, encourage and protect innovation-driving competition, and stay out of the way of technological development and the details of implementation.

We are also going to keep the pedal down on making more high-band spectrum available for 5G. And while we are busy putting out new spectrum, we will facilitate experimentation and innovation – by soon launching our electronic filing system to accept applications for program experimental licenses. Experimental licensing has led to countless wireless innovations through the generations of wireless technologies. The new program licenses will provide much greater flexibility for researchers, universities, OEMs, and other innovators to conduct experiments and field tests of 5G technologies at scale.

Regardless of the spectrum allocation, 5G will require a lot more cells, particularly at the higher frequencies. These small cell sites will need to be connected, so we’ll need a lot more backhaul.

In many areas, competition in the supply of backhaul remains limited, and that can translate into higher costs for wireless networks, higher prices for consumers, and an adverse impact on competition.

Back when I was at CTIA, members were constantly telling me that we needed to do something about special access, the kind of dedicated lines that wireless providers need to connect antennas to their networks. But the reality of trade association politics kept that from happening. Action on this issue is a long time coming – but that time has arrived.

Before the end of this year the Commission will take up a reform proposal – supported by the nation’s leading wireless carriers, save one – that will tackle this issue and encourage innovation and investment in what we now call Business Data Services, while ensuring that lack of competition in some places cannot be used to hold 5G hostage.

There must be fair backhaul prices and availability if we are to connect all these small cells.

And the issue of an expanded number of cell sites brings us to the third 5G challenge: siting.

How many more small cells are we talking about? Estimates are a 10x growth, and potentially significantly more. That’s hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of new antennas. That’s hundreds of thousands, if not millions of siting decisions. Which raises quite a few questions: What can government do accelerate investment in building out small cells? How can federal, state, and local levels of government work more effectively with the private sector? Or to take it down to real brass tacks, how can we work with siting authorities to allow the plethora of antennas that will be required quickly and at a reasonable cost?

Two things.

One, we need to tell the story of what 5G is–and not just in terms of technology, but as deliverables that mean something to real people. We will be unsuccessful in dealing with NIMBYism and the recalcitrance of local authorities if all we talk about is engineering. We may all love the fabulous engineering in 5G, but if we want the technology to be successfully deployed, we need to talk about its benefits for people and their communities.

We have to help leaders at the local level – and all levels for that matter –understand that 5G will make the Internet of Things real. But even talking about IoT is too obtuse. Let’s talk about the benefits of smart-city energy grids, safer transportation networks, and new opportunities to improve health care. Let’s paint the picture of how 5G will unleash immersive education and entertainment industries, and how 5G will unlock new ways for local employers to grow, whether it’s a small specialty shop or a large factory, creating new jobs and improving services for the community.

5G is not a technology. It is a revolution.

It is also necessary to explain that the nature of 5G technology doesn’t just mean more antenna sites, it also means that without such sites the benefits of 5G may be sharply diminished. In the pre-5G world, fending off sites from the immediate neighborhood didn’t necessarily mean sacrificing the advantages of obtaining service from a distant cell site. With the anticipated 5G architecture, that would appear to be less feasible, perhaps much less feasible.

Furthermore, the nature of the technology makes the review and approval by community siting authorities, and the associated costs and fees, all the more critical. There are just over 200,000 cell towers in the U.S., but there may be millions of small cell sites in the 5G future. If siting for a small cell takes as long and costs as much as siting for a cell tower, few communities will ever have the benefits of 5G. We recognize that this is a major concern and are committed to working to lessen these burdens and costs to ensure that 5G is available nationwide, while respecting the vital role that the communities themselves play in the siting process.

So, that’s one challenge we face together. We also need to think creatively about smart solutions to the deployment of the antennas necessary for 5G to benefit the public. In that regard, how do we learn from experience and get in front of this challenge?

Here’s one example of what you did before.

Back in 2001, Cingular and T-Mobile undertook a joint venture called Empire. The carriers agreed to share each other’s spectrum and infrastructure in three states, enabling each to quickly fill coverage needs while avoiding the costs of building out redundant infrastructure. The deal was dissolved when Cingular purchased AT&T wireless, but it was considered a success.

To be clear, I’m not endorsing shared infrastructure in every and all circumstances, and certainly not opening a door to consolidation. But I am saying that if we’re talking about thousands of antennas in a city, and you’ve got four carriers, and we are serious about leading the world in 5G deployment in our very large and spread-out country, we ought to explore creative options on how best to build that infrastructure.

I’ve cited spectrum, infrastructure, and siting as the three keys to 5G, but there are others important issues that warrant mentioning.

Next-generation networks must be secure, and the Commission is engaged with industry to make sure cybersecurity is addressed during the design phase for the entire 5G ecosystem, including devices.

Privacy is another important topic. A lot of the value of 5G will come from the exploitation of Big Data, so it’s imperative that carriers have privacy policies that enable customers to understand and control how their personal information is being used.

The bottom line is that there is a roadmap to chart our 5G future. Now is the time to make it happen.

Let’s lead the world in 5G deployment the way we led the world in 4G, giving U.S. developers a home field advantage in creating the apps and services of tomorrow.

Let’s remember than 5G is not an international zero-sum game. The tides of 5G will lift all boats, and create opportunities for individuals all across the world.

Let’s commit ourselves to maximizing the benefits of 5G for rural America. We cannot allow the 5G future to be the sole province of urban areas.

Let’s never stop pushing boundaries so that 5G and the advances it will enable go beyond what we can imagine today.

I have no doubt this industry will rise to this challenge, as you have time and again.

John Gardner once said, “History doesn’t look like history when you’re living it.”

Well, this industry is not just living history, you are writing it. I believe we are not just about to turn the page, but rather open a whole new chapter in the ongoing story of how communications networks have transformed the world for the benefit of all of us.

This September 7, Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the latest Apple iPhone, the iPhone 7, at an event in San Francisco. It won’t be 5G but looking closely at the expected new features hints us about what future Apple 5G devices will be like.

It’s an All-Wireless World: The iPhone 7 does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, the universal standard for personal audio, setting the trend that wireless interfaces are the end game. And the move towards wireless interfaces is not only for audio but also for power. 5G will be a world with little or no wires.

Faster Hardware and Larger Memory Closing on Laptop Computing: The iPhone 7 comes with a faster A10 processor clocked at 2 GHz, and feature 3 GB of RAM, and up to 256 GB of storage. This moves mobile computing closer and closer to laptop computing, a trend that will accelerate as we come closer to 5G.

More Sensors and The Path to VR, AR Enablement in The Phone: User experience is at the core of Apple’s brand thus better displays and more sensors are a given. Apple has been working on imaging and sensing capabilities including 3D, dual camera, bio-sensors, and all reside in the phone and not in additional specialized peripherals. For now iPhones, also smartphones in general, are our primitive VR and AR devices. The trend is for these capabilities to continue improving residing the iPhone itself and this is a trend we see in the evolution to 5G.

Apple Event is For September 7, 2016. Tim Cook will Be at The Announcement (Image Source: Apple, Inc)

Where to Watch the Event: Apple announced that the event is scheduled for September 7, 2016 at 10 a.m. PDT, West Coast Time, with invitation at hand, in San Francisco’s Bill Graham Auditorium. Streaming of the event at http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2016/